Thoughts on culture and events by author and illustrator Christopher R Taylor

Tuesday, August 02, 2011

VOTER FRAUD UPDATE

"Our voting rights are under attack because a few years ago, we had a great breakthrough in this country. We broke the color line at the White House."-NAACP head Ben Jealous

There is a constant battle going on in America to try to ensure that people who vote are who they say they are. The intention here is to try to reduce fraud in voting so that the democratic process is as pure and reliable as possible, but there is great controversy every time the idea of requiring photo ID to vote comes up.

When I voted the first time in 1984, I was astounded that nobody even asked me for ID. I had to show ID to write a check, rent a boat, or do any of a dozen things but voting somehow was fine if I didn't? That made no sense to me at all.

The left always argues that voting is a right and hence its different than renting a boat, but they're missing part of the point. Voting is also a very critical part of the survival of a republic and a deeply important responsibility as well. Granted, responsibility is an awful thing to the leftist, but its impossible to get away from that fact. Renting a boat is of no particular import, but voting is of very deep and significant importance. Hence, requiring ID for the one and not the other is simply ridiculous.

Why does this come up so often? Because there's so much money and power in holding political office in America that there are many who'd do anything to get it. And since for groups like ACORN, winning makes anything you do okay, they're more than willing to cheat the system to obtain their results. They believe what they are doing is so right and just that they have to win at any cost, because some people just don't know what's good for themselves and vote the wrong way.

Voter ID is critical to the survival of democracy in America, something even former Carter cabinet official and secretary of state James Baker agreed to in a bipartisan commission on the topic in 2005.

Fraud isn't rampant, but it is very important. Even one case undermines the reliability and trustworthiness of an election, something a republic must have to survive. And while the cases of non citizens voting are not extensive, they do happen. Earlier this year, a study conducted by the Colorado secretary of state’s office found that as many as 5,000 non-citizen votes were cast in the Centennial State last year. That's just in one state.

And the cases of fraud roll in every time an election is finished. Just in the last month two were decided. The first was in New Jersey where a campaign official pled guilty to submitting faudulent absentee ballots. In Mississippi, a leader in the local NAACP chapter was found guilty of ten counts of voter fraud - again with absentee ballots.

The NAACP has had other problems with voter fraud. The NAACP National Voter Fund registered a dead man to vote in Lake County, Ohio, in 2004. That same year, out of 325 voter registration cards filed by the NAACP in Cleveland, 48 were flagged as fraudulent.

But the NAACP’s voter fraud record doesn’t approach that of ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. At least 54 individuals employed by or associated with ACORN have been convicted of voter fraud.

Voter Fraud, as Matthew Vadum points out in the article, is a broad legal term including casting fake ballots, destroying ballots, registering fake names, perjury, forgery, counterfeiting, impersonation, intimidation, and identity fraud. The left loves to say that ACORN hasn't yet been caught at actually defrauding an election because they've never been busted for casting fake ballots, but the legal term actually covers their favorite activity: registering hundreds of fake names. The latest ACORN employee to be nailed for this was this spring.

Requiring people to show some ID to vote is really just common sense, its hardly a burden and would not "disenfranchise" anyone except illegals. You should notice something in those two stories, something that the New Jersey story conspicuously avoids. Both are Democrats, committing fraud in an attempt to elect a Democrat.

And honestly, its hard to avoid the conclusion that Democrats and leftists are more concerned about voter ID because it hurts their chances of winning elections than any sort of civil rights issue.